2017 B2B TRENDS

Were here to talk about

7 emerging trends in B2B
marketing
 The Value of
1 Thought Leadership
B2B Buyers Are Scared
B2B is not rational, its even more emotional than B2C

Nobody ever
got fired for
buying IBM.
Clients Buy From Vendors That De-Risk The
Process
Thought leadership gives a buyer confidence in your products

Buyers dont buy your products until they

buy your approach to solving their
problems.
Thats Why Thought Leadership Drives Massive ROI
If structured correctly, it can drive leads and build brands at the
same team

BLOCKBUSTER

N U RT U R E NO MQL YES SALES REVENUE

NO
 The Profitability of
2 Content Franchises
The Current Model Of Thought Leadership Is Broken
Only 30% of B2B marketers believe their content works
 So Dont Imitate Newspapers, Imitate Disney
Studio revenue is up 63% due to a relentless focus on
blockbusters

SUMMER FA L L WINTER SPRING SUMMER FA L L WINTER SPRING SUMMER

2015 2015 2015 2016 2016 2016 2016 2017 2017
A B2B Blockbuster Monetizes A Brands Expertise
A focused approach that markets the same IP across multiple
channels
 The Need for
3 Touchpoint
Consistency
Nobody Remembers Anything Anymore, Especially
Ads
The average consumer sees 5,000 ads a day
Pattern Recognition Is How Brands Drive Recall
We see B2C and B2B brands accomplish this every day
Blockbusters Enable Touchpoint Consistency
Helping build a memorable brand across an explosion of channels
 The Rise of
4 Everyone-As-A-Marketer
 Its Now Clear That Employees Are The Key Touchpoint
Buyers trust employees significantly more than brands

Employees Are Most Trusted Spokesperson On Every Topic

Employees Offer Massive Reach And Engagement
Employee networks have 10X the reach of Company Pages

96 48
Profile
Views 100
Employee
Company
Page Views

Shares

32 16
New Company
Connections Page
48 Followers
Job Views
So Make Sure You Have A People-First Strategy
Blockbusters align marketing and sales internally and externally
 The Death of
5 Hypertargeting
Brands Are Obsessed With Ad Targeting
Digital sells itself on the false promise of zero waste
The Problem Is That Targeting Excludes Potential
Buyers
Sophisticated B2C marketers are waking up to this expensive
truth
The Solution For B2B Is Relevant Reach
Reach the entire buying committee, today and tomorrow

Junior Decision
Makers

TARGETED
Extended Buying BUYER
Committee
 The 3 Principles of
6 Brand Investing
#1: Obey The 60/40 Rule
Brands need to balance long and short-term objectives

60/40 RULE

Investment in long-term brand

and
trust building, combined with
short term brand activations to
reap the sales benefits of those
investments
#2: Plan For A 10:1 Ratio
In A Pay-To-Play World, Distribution Is King
#3: Budget For The 80/20 Rule
80% of value comes from 20% of your blockbusters; invest
accordingly
 The Arrival of
7 Cost-Per-Connection
Everyone Is Counting The Wrong Metrics
Current industry metrics (CTR, CPC) do not correlate with
revenue

Not everything that counts can be

counted, and not everything that
can be counted counts.
Albert Einstein
B2B Sales Is Still Largely Relationship-Driven
Cutting-edge measurement should reflect the offline world
 So Why Arent We Tracking Cost-Per-Connection?
Start by measuring Connection Density which *does*
correlate to revenue

14X
Response Rate to InMails Sent By Sales Teams

40%
Higher Than Average
E-mail Response Rate*

+150%
16%

Non-Nurtured Prospects Prospects Exposed To Content

Source: Internal LinkedIn Data : 7/1/2016 12/31/2016

*Average email unique click rate: 2.76%. Source: https://mailchimp.com/resources/research/email-marketing-benchmarks/
 Great.
So how can my client take
advantage of these trends
today?
1 Invest in thought-leadership content

2 Package your thought-leadership into blockbusters

3 Use your blockbuster to achieve touchpoint consistency

4 Activate your blockbuster via employees

 Reach the entire buying committee with your
5 blockbuster

Distribute according to the 60/40, 10:1, and 80/20

6 rules

7 Start measuring Cost-Per-Connections